What we saw in last week’s datapublished at 08:59 GMT
08:59 GMT
NHS England publishes weekly updates on the number of flu patients in hospital.
Last week’s report, published on 11 December, showed an average of 2,660 patients were in a hospital bed with with flu each day over the course of the previous week.
This was the highest-ever figure for this time of year, and a rise of 55% compared to the week before.
NHS national medical director Meghana Pandit said “with record demand for A&E and ambulances”, and the doctors’ strike, the “unprecedented wave of super flu is leaving the NHS facing a worst-case scenario for this time of year”.
There was a glimmer of good news yesterday, though, when the chief executive of NHS England said flu cases may now be “starting to settle” in some places – we’ll have more on that in our next post.
